2003 S-10

[Blue_69_malibu]

While the entire motor looks bad a*s, that intake is killer.....IMHO.

[Basement Paul]

Well it's in there... for now. I spent ALL day yesterday screwing around to get to this point. As it turns out, the oil pan is too tall and I can't put the motor in with the tranny attached (that was three hours). Then I pulled them apart and went after it again. There's a breather nipple that hits the power brake booster that I'll have to modify. This is a product of using a '97-98 LS1. The valve cover is weird and they changed them for '99-up. On the passenger's side, the corner of the cylinder head is scraping the A/C box. I believe some of this will go away once I get the breather problem solved, but I'll take the die grinder to the pointy part of the head before I put it back in.
Right now the motor is resting in the mounts, but because of the breather issue, it won't drop all the way down on the back of the mount and there's still a small amount of adjustment toward the driver's side. I'm also going to test fit the headers while it's in there.
I removed the core support assembly to make the installation easier. Removing that took a couple hours. I plan to do some modifying to the driver's side while it's out to let more air in for the intake system too.

More to come next weekend.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Yesterday was a good day in the garage. 32V and I got the engine back out. We removed the driver's valve cover and once we figured out how to remove the breather tube, we did some modification, went to the hardware store, and ended up with a new 90 degree that now clears the brake booster.


Then after some figuring, we determined that the headers had to be on the engine before it was installed, but that introduced a clearance problem for the new dipstick mount. Here is the modified dipstick mount:



So the only thing left to do was try to put it back in the chassis. The only dilemma was that with the headers on and the engine mounts bolted to the frame, there wasn't enough space for everything, so we determined if we bolted the top and bottom motor mounts together, then tried to bolt them to the frame, it would slide in. And it did (with some coaxing).




This is a pretty simplified version of what happened, but you get the idea. It's a half hour show so we had to do some editing.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Not much happened last weekend. I spent my working time going to Summit for more parts. I picked up a Moser rear differential cover, a new muffler, a transmission jack adapter for my floor jack, a 160 deg thermostat, and a throttle position sensor. I needed a break for myself so I didn't do too much physical work last weekend. This weekend should get the tranny hooked up and then some I hope.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Yesterday was another productive day in the garage. The only problem we had was before we started we put together this tranny jack attachment for a normal floor jack. We went so far as to put the jack on it and then realized that the top of the trans while on that configuration was almost 32" tall. With the highest point under the truck at just over 19", this scenario wasn't going to work. So we did it old school by sliding the tranny under the truck, did some screwing around getting the trans balanced on a board on the regular floor jack round pad. After about 15 minutes the trans was bolted to the block without drama. I do need to now figure out how to get all the bellhousing bolts into the block, but that will be another day.

Next up was the crossmember, but while it was halfway installed, I realized that the engine did need to be slid forward on the motor mounts (they're slotted), so with a little thinking we got two ratchet straps and hooked them to the front frame and motor mounts, got them real tight, and I whacked on the back of the trans with a rubber mallet to get it where it needed to be. With this forward movement, the slot in the crossmember for the tranny mount needed to be opened up just a little for it to fit smoothly. So I jacked the back of the trans up and took a tiny die grinder bit to it.

The last thing I did was clearance the upper control arm for the driver's side header. With the motor moved forward, the two were touching, so with a couple well placed sawzall cuts, I was able to open it up to a safe distance without messing with the integrity of the mount (I hope).

Here's a couple shots.









From now it seems like just a TON of little stuff and details to get this thing back together.

-BP

[Blue_69_malibu]

Very impressive!!!

At least all of your headaches are the headaches you're "supposed" to have....unlike the Tub Stang.....which was like dropping a cinder block on your b*lls every weekend.

It's gonna be a killer ride when you're done. Should be totally worth it, IMHO.

[Basement Paul]

Let's not jinx it quite yet, but I agree. That Mustang was a major pain and I really don't miss it. I plan to drive the shit out of this thing when it's done too. I'm hoping it will be the fastest vehicle I've owned, which will be realistic. The Trans Am was 12.51 and I'm thinking that is attainable in my first year of being together.

-BP

[Blue_69_malibu]

When you pass by me....with your A/C on....don't rub it in too much.

[ttamrettus]

Is that a brakeline right next to the header ? I would seriously consider relocating it, no matter what it is.

Also, how many spacers are on the other side of the A-arm? You could have (or still could) remove an equal number to move the A arm out.

Looking good.

[Basement Paul]

I'm pretty happy with the distance to the A-arm at this point. I imagine at some point in the trucks life those will end up being tubular (totally), but that's a couple / few years away.

The brake line runs real close right now to the header, but was also real close to the header on the V6 engine. I plan to tweak it a little so it's not touching the header, but beyond that, these are ceramic coated headers and will be cooler than the steel ones on the V6 and I never had any issues in that scenario. If I ever planned to road race it, I think I would be more concerned, but for normal street / strip nonsense, it should be OK. Good eye though.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Today 32v and I got the water pump installed, but it didn't go on as easily as we hoped. The huge throttle body required us to grind down the water pump casting and a little bit of the throttle body too. With that installed we got the fuel rails put back on, the spark plug wires, and that brake line tweaked.
Next up, the steering shaft, a/c parts, and power steering/alternator bracket.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Putting the steering shaft on took longer than anticipated as there was header interference. After over 100 strategically positioned blows (and one REALLY good one to my index finger) with a couple different sledge hammers, the steering shaft now clears the driver's side header. Those headers are TOUGH!

We got the brackets lined up and loosely installed for the P/S and alternator, but am waiting on a power steering line from the parts store. Hopefully the return line from an S10 and the pressure line from a Vette will get me what I need to make it steer again. I also got the new overflow tank installed and mounted the PCM that I'll be using to it.

I still have parts to order this week:

Radiator Hoses
Heater Hoses
Throttle Cable bracket

This should help propel some of next weekends projects.







-BP

[ttamrettus]

That tanks looks SWEET.

[Basement Paul]

Thanks. It wasn't cheap, but I thought, what the hell!

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Today got the power steering lines installed, the throttle cable bracket put on, the alternator bolted up, and the power steering/alternator bracket bolted up to the block. We were trying to install the A/C compressor with the new retro bracket, but it requires me to buy a new belt tensioner from an LS2 which wasn't in stock at AutoZone. I JUST got a coupon from them in the mail today though, so I'll save a few buck on it.

More to come.

-BP